my capture. But despite my profound sorrow, I did not lament. I thought about<hr>
preserving the empire for my children and washing away the blood he had shed with the blood of his<hr>
enemies. As one could say that the courage of this man had been his nobility of soul,<hr>
I vowed to dedicate my whole life to gathering palm fronds to place on his tomb.<hr>
In this way, one day, I will be able to declare that I avenged his death on my own and defended the empire<hr>
for our children. I thought it was better to adorn his coffin with the spoils of the enemies<hr>
that I will conquer rather than wetting it with my tears. In this resolution, I took the weapons<hr>
in one hand and the reins of the empire in the other. I have always believed, my daughters, that all the qualities<hr>
could coexist, that one person could possess them all, that the<hr>
qualities of men could be practiced by women, that true wisdom did not<hr>
have a predetermined sex. One can be pure and valiant at the same time, demonstrate courage in one<hr>
occasion and humility in another, be stern and lenient in different situations,<hr>
command and obey, and carry chains and a crown with the same face. It is with<hr>
this conviction, my daughters, that I have accomplished these distinct things, even though I remain the same person today.<hr>
        But to look back on my entire life, you know that the death that took away my Odenatus did not<hr>
deprive me of the joy of his weapons. On the contrary, his bravery seemed to merge with mine.<hr>
I conquered the army that Gallienus had sent against me under the command<hr>
of Heraclianus. And not satisfied with this first victory, I conquered Egypt and established myself as the absolute ruler of the kingdom of my predecessors. From there, I<hr>
advanced to Ancyra, the main city of Galatia. I even carried my weapons throughout<hr>
all of Bithynia up to Chalcedon and beneath the Bosphorus. After I vanquished the<hr>
Persians time and again, and made the sound of my triumphs heard all over the world,<hr>
Aurelian, driven by fate and more skillful with the sword than Gallienus, ultimately arrived in person to stop my progress. I will recount our misfortunes<hr>
with as much detail as I narrated my victories, because you know well that they are etched in<hr>
your memory. I would not have undertook to remind you of my victories if I did not know that<hr>
your deep melancholy has made you forget them, as in your despair you are no longer receptive to any but the bleakest images. You are not ignorant of<i><hr>
the path Aurelian led me down to Rome. You must surely recall how Heraclius' treachery allowed him<hr>
to capture the city of Tyana. Despite my command and bravery, Aurelian's army handed him the victory in front of Antioch. Thanks to the ingenuity of Zabas, I was put<hr>
to safety when I fled to Emesa. I gathered my troops and fought Aurelian a second time who, despite my efforts, finally won the battle. You may also remember that I<hr>
abandoned Emesa to take refuge in Palmyra while waiting for the promised help from the Persians,<hr>
the Saracens, and the Armenians. You know that it was there that Aurelian came to besiege me with his<hr>
mighty army, composed of Pannonians, Dalmatians, Moors, Celts, and others.<hr>
<hr>
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